Hapoel Tel Aviv crushed Hapoel Jerusalem 91-64 as Danny Franco’s team came right back with a strong domestic league performance thanks to Dusty Hannahs and Bar Timor after being ousted in Europe. Kyle Alexander and John Holland set the tone early for Hapoel Tel Aviv while Hannahs started his scoring spree in the second quarter to give the visitors 37-33 lead at halftime. Hannahs and Timor started the second half by scoring at will in every which possible while Ilias Kantzouris and his squad had no answer defensively as Hapoel Tel Aviv cruised to the victory.

Hannahs led the way with 23 points, Timor added 21 points, Holland chipped in with 14 points while Kyle Alexander scored 11 points and grabbed 9 rebounds in the win. Zach Hankins scored 14 points and Brynton Lemar added 10 points in the loss.

“We were all looking deep inside of ourselves after the loss last week,” Franco began. “We saw in the second half of this game what we can do, you all know that I am a players coach and I really believe in this group of guys. It’s great to be with them, we have been through a lot together as a family whether it was in one hotel or another as well as airport terminals. I’m proud to be with them and we understand each other.”

“This was a tough game for us and the fans that came to support us didn’t deserve this picture,” Kantzouris said. “Our job is to find a way to get out of the hole. We have to do this yesterday and not tomorrow, because we have a huge Basketball Champions League game on Tuesday and that is what we have to focus on now. I believe that we have a very special group and the team that played badly the last few games is the same team who had some big wins in the recent past.”

Bar Timor reflected on the game, “We were able to win this game after a very tough loss in EuroCup which resulted in many hard feelings. I am happy that we were able to respond which was important for us and the entire organization. We didn’t stand up to our goal in Europe and it was tough after going up by so many points and then losing the lead. We really had to reflect on it which was a very tough point for us as players and for the staff and management.”

Zach Hankins spoke about his club’s poor performance, “There are some positives from this game as we showed that in the first half we can compete with everybody while the third quarter showed that it’s on us, the players and the coach is going to let us stay on and try to work it out. The organization, the fans and the team deserve more in the second half and we have a season to save. We can still be number 1 in the BCL and we can fight in the playoffs of the Israeli league and Cup. It’s on us and the organization deserves better.”

Kyle Alexander dunked to get Hapoel Tel Aviv on the scoreboard while Oz Blayzer and Levi Randolph went from deep and Zach Hankins dunked for Hapoel Jerusalem, John Holland scored from the inside and outside, while Khadeen Carrington and Bar Timor traded triples to end the first quarter all knotted up at 16-16.

JaCorey Williams scored off the glass as did Dusty Hannahs to begin the second quarter, Carrington hit a deuce, Hankins dunked, Hannahs scored off the glass and then a reverse on the baseline, Or Cornelius put in a layup to even up the game at 27-27 midway through the period. Timor scored a 3-point play, Hannahs drilled home a corner 3-ball, Alexander dunked, Cornelius scored a layup but Danny Franco’s team went into halftime holding a 37-33 advantage.

Tomer Ginat and Alexander scored to begin the third quarter, Bryton Lemar, Randolph and Nimrod Levi answered, Ginat, Hannahs and Braian Angola drained 3-pointers, Carrington came back with points, but Ginat and Timor scored at will to give Hapoel Tel Aviv a commanding 63-44 lead after thirty minutes of action.

Hoard with a deuce and Timor with a triple opened up the fourth quarter, Hannahs again went from downtown, Timor scored again as Levi and Hankins tried to keep the result respectable to no avail as Holland and Angola both went from beyond the arc to wrap up a 27-point victory.

Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Hapoel Afula 95-78 as captain John Dibartolomeo was able to lead the yellow-and-blue out of a 19-2 hole at the start of the game to take the home victory. Justin Briggs and Marcellus Earlington helped build up Afula’s early lead but Dibartolomeo along with Jake Cohen and Josh Nebo began to chip away at the advantage to take a 52-47 lead into halftime. From there Wade Baldwin and Rafi Menco began to hit their shots and Oded Katash’s crew cruised to the victory.

Dibartolomeo scored 20 points going 5/5 from beyond the arc, Cohen added 16 points and Baldwin scored 14 points in the win. Earlington scored 19 points and Briggs added 18 points in the loss.

“We didn’t begin this game well,” Katash began. “We had no energy and just as he has done so many times before, John Dibartolomeo saved us. We knew without a pair of bigs in Roman Sorkin and Jasiel Rivero we were going to play with different lineups and the fouls gave us some issues. I’m happy that we found the energy and we were able to get back into the game.”